---
title: "Accessibility Checker Rule Help: RPT_Media_AltBrief"
---
import "../../../styles/ToolHelp.scss"
import { CodeSnippet, Tag } from "carbon-components-react";

<div className="toolHelp">
<Row>
<Column colLg={16} colMd={8} colSm={4} className="toolHead">

### Text alternative is more than 150 characters

<div id="locLevel"></div>

Alternative text in `alt` attribute should be brief

</Column>
</Row>
<Row>
<Column colLg={11} colMd={5} colSm={4} className="toolMain">

### Why is this important?

`alt` attribute values ('alt text') are intended to be a brief, inline replacement for an image when it cannot be loaded or displayed. Verbose or long alt text can have a negative impact on the user experience.

<div id="locSnippet"></div>

### What to do

 * Use an `alt` description less than 150 characters long;
 * OR, if a shorter description is not adequate, use the `aria-describedby` attribute to point to the `id` value of an element containing a longer description;
 * OR, use a 'D' link as shown in the example.

 For example:

<CodeSnippet type="multi" light={true}>&lt;img src="boxplot.gif" alt="Box plot comparing scores across five testing conditions" aria-describedby="imgDescription"&gt;
&lt;div id="imgDescription"&gt;This box plot shows test scores for the expert group (mean 4.5, std. dev 1.1), intermediate group ... &lt;/div&gt;
    
&lt;img src="rpttested.gif" alt="Tested with IBM Equal Access Accessibility Checker"&gt;
&lt;a href="testInfo.html"&gt;D&lt;/a&gt;</CodeSnippet>

</Column>
<Column colLg={5} colMd={3} colSm={4} className="toolLeft">

### About this requirement

[IBM 1.1.1 Non-text content](https://www.ibm.com/able/requirements/requirements/#1_1_1)

### Who does this affect?

 * Blind people using a screen reader
 * People using text only, monochrome or braille displays
 * People using text-based browsers (e.g., Lynx) or audio interfaces
 * People who turn off image-loading on their web browsers

</Column>
</Row>
</div>

export default ({ children, _frontmatter }) => (<React.Fragment>{children}</React.Fragment>)
